Belief, precision key to Matildas coach Ante Milicic’s approach
When Ante Milicic became Matildas coach five months ago it was big step into the unknown for a man who had never coached women’s football. Which was a key reason why he took on the role.
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IT’S 7am on a Friday in mid-May, and Ante Milicic is on a public bus.
The Croatia-based Matildas boss is back in Australia to announce his World Cup squad, and then, a day later, be announced as Macarthur FC’s inaugural A-League coach.
In all, he’s in Sydney for five days, and his last is chock full of work commitments.
But the 45-year-old inner-west product will be damned if he leaves the country without popping in to his most cherished old haunt.
Trovatino Cafe is a bustling Italian institution in Abbotsford, and for years Milicic was one of their most reliable clients.
Each and every morning he’d turn up.
Sometimes on his own, chatting intermittantly with the owners and other regulars. Others for long meetings with colleagues.
But always at the same table.
“They called it the Table of Knowledge,” Milicic tells The Daily Telegraph.
“I’d sort of sit in the same seat, my back to the wall, where I could sort of see and observe the place.”
The ritual got a bit difficult during his two years as assistant to Western Sydney coach and brother-in-law Tony Popovic.
But even then, Milicic would show.
“When I worked at the Wanderers it was like, no Table of Knowledge,” he recalls.
“It was 6.30am takeaways because you had to get on the M4.
“So when the MacArthur job starts there won’t be much Table of Knowledge - the takeaways will be going again.”
In that sense, Milicic is a man of precise routine.
But not to the point he’d knock back a job 90 per cent of people told him point blank was risky to the point of madness.
The Matildas, three months before the World Cup, after the tumult of Alen Stajcic’s sacking? Sounds like a poisoned chalice, they’d said.
On top of that, critics pontificated the former Sydney United striker of six international caps didn’t have enough - well, any - experience in women’s football.
And even in the men’s game, A-League apprenticehips at Melbourne Heart and the Wanderers, not to mention two World Cups with the Socceroos, wouldn’t cut it for a first senior role of this magnitude.
They’re generally motivating things to say about someone with a work ethic befitting the son of Croatian immigrants and a stubborn enough streak to prove them wrong.
So Milicic called up his most trusted Table of Knowledge: Popovic first, then Socceroos mentor Ange Postecoglou.
They convinced him to take the job.
“He’s not going to be overawed,” Postecoglou said on the eve of the tournament.
“Anything that happens at the World Cup will not strike him as new.
“He’s going to be the right calming influence they need.”
From the perspective of players that appears, at least at face value, to be the case.
“It was a really smooth transition,” says defender Alanna Kennedy.
“He’s very structured, there’s a plan for everything. And very clear in the way we want to play and our style.
“I think he was maybe a little bit surprised by the environment. With all the noise around everything he probably didn’t know what he was getting into.”
When it comes to the actual football, the man opens his mouth and practically knocks you over with passion.
But not in a fabricated or self-important way - more unadulterated espresso than soy decaf latte.
If the Matildas play poorly, he’ll say so and in which areas. Play well and he’ll deliver specific praise.
“He’s pretty up front and honest,” Kennedy says.
“He comes in at halftime of every game and the first thing he says is, ‘Is everyone healthy? Is everyone okay?’ Which is nice, he obviously cares a lot.”
It’s different with politics - he’s not having a bar of it.
On the Alen Stajcic saga Milicic has kept his powder remarkably dry, even during those negative few days after the Matildas’ tournament-opening loss to Italy.
Now, with it all on the line against Norway and a potentially invasive autopsy awaiting if they lose, sticking to the football is all part of the challenge in France and beyond towards the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
“I’ve always believed in myself to do something that’s difficult, to get out of my comfort zone,” Milicic says.
“I believe once you get out of your comfort zone that’s when you have a chance to achieve something special.”
Originally published as Belief, precision key to Matildas coach Ante Milicic’s approach
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